Agriculture Production & Farmers Welfare Department Kashmir today celebrated “World Soil Day” across the Kashmir Division.Besides holding functions at Zonal, Sub Divisional & District levels, a mega function was held here at Mini Secretariat Shopian. Director Agriculture Kashmir Chowdhary Mohammad Iqbal inaugurated the function.Speaking on the occasion the Director Agriculture said that “World Soil Day '' is celebrated annually on 5th of December round the globe to highlight, pay attention and to address the issues and challenges confronting this finite natural resource. This year's theme for World Soil Health Day is “Halt Soil Salinization, Boost Soil Productivity”.Director Agriculture Kashmir, enlightened the importance of soil for human survival. He said that “World Soil Health Day-2021” and its campaign is focused to raise awareness on the importance of sustaining a healthy ecosystem and human welfare by addressing the increasing challenges in soil management.On the occasion Director Agriculture distributed Soil Health Cards among the farmers / growers of the district.
He called upon the concerned officers to regularly monitor the progress on “Soil Health Cards” Scheme and ensure that the farmers are managing their cultural practices as per the recommendations of soil health cards. He said the best way to celebrate this day is to generate awareness about the soil health among the farmers at grass root level for sustainability of agriculture production. During the program 02 tractors and 02 Motorized vending carts were distributed among the progressive farmers of the district under CAPEX.Chief Agriculture Officer, Shopian Farooq Ahmad Reshi, District Agriculture Officers, Sub-Divisional Agriculture Officers, field functionaries and farmers / growers of the district were present in the function.Later on, Director Agriculture chaired a meeting to review the status of Centrally Sponsored Schemes & other flagship programmes being implemented in the district.During the visit of the Director Agriculture Kashmir met representatives of the Fertilizer & Pesticides dealers associations and had detailed deliberations on different issues. They raised various queries before the Director, after giving a patient hearing, he assured them that their genuine queries will be taken care of on priority.